“Deeply moving, ethically challenging and utterly compelling.” —Jonathan Watts, The Guardian
NOWHERE TO CALL HOME premieres in the U.S. on Saturday Aug. 23 and Au. 29 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The North American premiere follows film festival accolades in Europe, and in China, rare acclaim from both Tibetans and ethnic Chinese.
This riveting and touching documentary about a Tibetan widow and her young son provides a rare glimpse into the life of a rural Tibetan in contemporary China. As the inspirational story unfolds, it reveals the harsh realities facing ethnic minorities in Beijing, and Tibetan women in a remote village.
“This story breaks all the rules and upends popular perceptions of Tibetans and journalists alike.”
–Jonathan Watts, The Guardian
Nowhere To Call Home has been translated into six languages, and was awarded a jury special mention at the Millenium Documentary Film Festival in Belgium. It was nominated for awards at Dokfest Munich and Estonia’s Parnu International documentary Film Festival, and in November goes to the International Documentary Film Festival of Mexico City.
This will be the last chance to see the film in the New York area beforeNowhere To Call Home returns to China for more screenings this fall.
Tickets may be purchased online or in person at MoMA a week in advance, or in person on the day of the screening. Tickets are free of charge on Friday, Aug. 29. Please check MoMA’s ticket policies online.
Jocelyn & Team
SYNOPSIS: Widowed at 28, Tibetan farmer Zanta defies her tyrannical father-in-law and after her husband’s death refuses to marry the family’s only surviving son. When Zanta’s in-laws won’t let her seven-year-old go to school, she flees her village and heads to Beijing where she becomes a street vendor. Destitute and embattled by discrimination, Zanta inveigles a foreign customer into helping pay her boy’s school fees. On a New Year’s trip back to her village, Zanta’s in-laws take her son hostage, drawing the unwitting American into the violent family feud. The two women forge a partnership to try to out-maneuver the in-laws, who according to tradition get the final say on their grandson.
Director Jocelyn Ford, former Beijing and Tokyo bureau chief for the U.S. public radio show Marketplace, has been based in East Asia for three decades. Her groundbreaking reporting on “comfort women” in the 1990s was a catalyst for raising awareness about World War II abuses of women by Japan’s military. During three years of filmingNOWHERE TO CALL HOME, Jocelyn overcame restrictions on access to Tibetan communities to shine light on the complex choices facing Tibetan farmers living in contemporary China, and to lend new insights into the social fragility of the world’s fastest rising power.
For further information, contact director Jocelyn Ford at jocelynford@tibetaninbeijing.com |
